Nigel Hutson

Your votes have been counted and two of the UK’s biggest players have reinforced their positions with poll-topping scores for their new and used caravans

The good news to come out of this year’s survey is that the majority of respondents appear to be reasonably satisfied with their tourers

Over the past year, we’ve been asking you to give us your feedback on buying and owning your caravan as part of our 2016 Owner Satisfaction Survey, run in association with pump and heating specialist Whale and Shield Total Insurance. And now the results of our fourth annual survey are in, with Sprite from the Swift Group coming out on top among manufacturers of new caravans.

Our Awards are based entirely on owners’ experiences and judgements. We’re not only interested in new models, but also in used caravans, and in the supplying dealers of both. Among pre-owned models, Bailey Caravans was the highest-scoring Gold Award winner for satisfaction according to respondents to our survey, while top honours among supplying dealers were shared between Oxford Caravan Centre (new caravans) and Highbridge Caravan Centre (pre-owned caravans).

The good news to come out of this year’s survey is that the majority of respondents appear to be reasonably satisfied with their tourers, but as always there is still room for improvement. Using the information supplied by caravan owners, our experts came up with satisfaction scores for manufacturers and dealerships, with those who had impressed our respondents most being rewarded with gongs: Gold Awards go to those scoring between 85% and 100%, Silver Awards to those scoring between 70% and 84%.

Among manufacturers of new caravans, those to come away with Gold Awards for satisfaction comprised Sprite, Adria, Coachman and Bailey, while Silver Award winners included Swift, Lunar, Sterling (Swift Group), Elddis and Buccaneer (both from the Explorer Group).

More details on how we conduct these awards, plus the results in full and an analysis of the 2016 Owner Satisfaction Survey, are published in the March issue of Practical Caravan magazine, on sale now!